Stronger Everyday

by **gantonio45** » Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:09 pm

It has been roughly a year and a half since I have given my heart to the Lord and became a Born Again Christian. It has been roughly that same amount of time that I have remained clean and sober from the drugs and alcohol that were overtaking my life.

One month ago, I packed up my bags and moved to Arizona (after having lived my entire life in Massachusetts). God told me it was time to move, and get away from the environments that I had built around myself. I was determined to live a whole new, clean, and positive life. My goal was to surround myself with people who's focus was the same as mine...God.

Two weeks ago, while I was walking through a casino trying to find where my parents were sitting, I was confronted head-on by a member of a local outlaw motorcycle club. After noticing my tattoos, my wardrobe, and as he put it (the general way you carry yourself) he invited me to go back with him and a couple of his other club members to party.

Here I was, one month into my move to a whole new location, and I was confronted face to face with the same crowd and the same exact temptations I thought I had left behind in Massachusetts. I was completely stunned, and for a moment I didn't say anything back to him.

Now, the old me would have immediately taken him up on this offer and gone back to their club house to party the night away. But, for the first time since becoming born-again I felt an undeniable surge of energy within me. I looked right at him and the first words out of my mouth were, "Do you love God?" He was a little taken aback, and just sneered at me. I proceeded to say, "I'm a child under God, and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I can't allow myself to be subjected to that lifestyle anymore." With that, he just looked at me and said, "Well good for you man." Then he just walked away.

The weird part is, even though I have a very strong vocabulary and I know how to speak pretty eloquently, I would have never said these words in this way. I know from the bottom of my heart it wasn't me speaking, it was God speaking through me! I felt such a surge of energy within me, and I felt so in control of knowing that I had made the best decision for me. This was the first night I had been confronted head-on with demons from my past life, and truly through the power of God and God alone, I beat them!

Every day, I grow stronger and stronger in what God wants me to do and am learning each and every day that my desires mean nothing in the grand scheme of it all!